How, if some day or night a demon were to sneak
after you into your loneliest loneliness and say to you, "This life
as you now live it and have lived it, you will have to live once more
and innumerable times more; and there will be nothing new in it, but
every pain and every joy and every thought and sigh and everything
immeasurably small or great in your life must return to you--all in the
same succession and sequence--even this spider and this moonlight
between the trees, and even this moment and I myself. The eternal
hourglass of existence is turned over and over, and you with it, a dust
grain of dust." Would you not throw
yourself down and gnash your teeth and curse the demon who spoke thus?
Or did you once experience a tremendous moment when you would have
answered him, "You are a god, and never have I heard anything more
godly." If this thought were to gain possession of you, it would
change you, as you are, or perhaps crush you. The question in each and
every thing, "Do you want this once more and innumerable times
more?" would weigh upon your actions as the greatest stress. Or how
well disposed would you have to become to yourself and to life to crave
nothing more fervently than this ultimate eternal confirmation and seal?

-
Friedrich Nietzsche

Eternal Recurrence Prof. Eric Steinhart You can get into pretty weird physics talking about eternal recurrence. Some say that the Second Law of Thermodynamics implies that recurrence is impossible; others respond that the French mathematician Poincare proved a Recurrence Theorem that entails that recurrence is necessary for pretty much every physical system to which the Second Law applies. There are similar Recurrence Theorems for quantum mechanics. Some say that the universe goes through a cycle of Big Bangs followed by Big Crunches, then the cycle repeats...

Dark Matter in the Universe Now, one is tempted to say that Nietzsche was "talking about the same thing" as Dr Richer. In one sense, this is true. But in a crucial sense, it is false. Nietzsche's speculations could not be tested; and therefore they remained just that: speculations. Nothing comes out of them. Nevertheless, 'New Agers' read Nietzsche with delight; and continually remark upon the boldness of his speculations.

Eternal Recurrence Matt McDonald The Eternal Return is one of Nietzsche's most important thoughts. Nietzsche was not the first to write on the subject, but he did expand the idea of recurrence greatly. He first encountered the idea in his readings of Heinrich Heine, whom Nietzsche admired. Here is a selection from Heine's writing:

For time is infinite, but the things in time, the concrete bodies are finite.... Now, however long a time may pass, according to the eternal laws governing the combinations of this eternal play of repetition, all configurations that have previously existed on this earth must yet meet, attract, repulse, kiss, and corrupt each other again.... And thus it will happen one day that a man will be born again, just like me, and a woman will be born, just like Mary (Citation from Kaufmann's Translator's Introduction to The Gay Science, p. 16)

The Eternal Return is for Nietzsche the most weighty thought. It is a difficult thought, hard to grasp and conceptualize. In Nietzsche's mind the Eternal Return was a horrifying thought, almost paralyzing. Here is a selection from The Gay Science:

The greatest weight. -- What, if some day or night a demon were to steal after you into your loneliest loneliness...

Nietzsche
Contra Schopenhauer: The Construel of Eternal Recurrence by Douglas L. Berger Several years after the completion of
his chief work, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, and shortly before his final
mental collapse, Nietzsche pinpointed in retrospect its central concern:
"the fundamental conception of the work, the idea of eternal recurrence,
the highest form of affirmation which can possibly be attained" (6: 335).
To have admitted that the most important philosophical project of his life was
the construction of a formula which could overcome nihilism and affirm life,...

"The
Eternal Recurrence and Nietzsche's Ethic of Virtue" by Lester H. Hunt What
I would like to try to show here, to the extent that I can do so briefly, is
that Nietzsche's doctrine of the eternal recurrence of the same things is -
whatever else it might be in addition to this - an ethical idea. Considering it
as such, I will argue, promises to shed light both on the content of Nietzsche's
ethics and on the idea of recurrence...

REINVENTING TRUTH: NIETZSCHE, SKEPTICISM, AND THE CELEBRATION OF LIFE By Kyle Xhilone A good example is the theory of eternal recurrence. This theory posits that time is an ever-repeating cycle. The entire universe, and everything in it, are destined to happen over and over again, always the same, forever. Most importantly for Nietzsche, we are all going to live our lives over and over again, and every cycle will be identical. Clearly, anyone would be hard-pressed to find sensible evidence for (or against) such a theory. But look at how Nietzsche first proposes the theory:

What if some day or night a demon were to steal after you into your loneliest loneliness and say to you: "This life as you now live it and have lived it, you will have to live once more and innumerable times more; and there will be nothing new in it..." Would you not throw yourself down and gnash your teeth and curse the demon who spoke thus?...

From: sadecamus@ezl.com (Paul Rhodes) Subject: Re: can anyone help me? Someone wrote that N would have concurred with a Sarte like existentialism that insists that we are fully responsible for our actions ("condemned to be free", I think Sartre said.) N would have disagreed. He picked up a strong dose of determinism from Emerson early in life, and this pervades the the entire body of his writings. The idea of perfect freedom is one which N consistently denied.

--Daniel

...The notion of personal responsibility is in Nietzsche's work much more complicated than one of simple affirmation or simple denial thereof. To be sure, N does atttack the notion of free will as a theological subterfuge to justifies all sorts of vile punishment, but what then do we make of the doctrine of Eternal Recurrence. Nearly all Nietzsche scholars dismiss N's attempt to justify this doctrine as scientific silly and tend rather to interpret it as N's version of the Catagorical Imperative,..

Eternal Recurrence: keine Weltanschauung! Correa&Correa (lambdac@globalserve.net) Tue, 24 Jun 1997 The following was prompted by some of the interventions of Raggo and others- Raggo wrote: It doesn't justify life because it's an empty, profitless repetition. (...) It doesn't salvage anything for the next cycle but its own escessiveness, its lack of profit or return. It doesn't open any "other" possibility, any difference whatsoever which makes it strangely inconceivable, as what defies the finite repetitions required by language by projecting an infinity or eternity that doesn't enclose any identity but its vast and empty being...

Re: On Eternal Recurrence Steven E. Callihan (callihan@callihan.seanet.com) Sun, 10 Aug 1997 There is an interesting note in Will to Power, actually the next to last (!), that sheds some light on this issue. In section 1066 (dating from 1888), he writes (my brackets): "This conception [of the eternal return] is not simply a mechanistic conception; for if it were that, it would not condition an infinite recurrence of identical cases, but a final state. _Because_ the world has not reached this, mechanistic theory must be considered an imperfect and merely provisional hypothesis."

Nietzsche was not aware of the Big Bang and Expanding/Contracting Universe theories, of course, but I also see nothing in these theories that disallows the notion of an eternal repetition, that is, an infinite progression of Big Bangs (Expansions, then Contractions), if you will. The question is necessarily begged relative to what comes before the Big Bang, as well as after the eventual contractive collapse back into the Big Bang's black maw (the mother of all Black Holes!). There is also a paradox hidden here, in that the same event repeated infinitely would be _identical_ to the same event occuring only once!

Metaphysics of the ER (Be done with broken records -"wish I could murder you") Correa&Correa (lambdac@globalserve.net) Sun, 10 Aug 1997 The epitome of this tendency is found in Tipler, with his aleph (oh ox!...) state and his Omega point (Chardin used to say: Christ as Alpha and Omega at the limit of the spiritualization of the stuff of the universe...) At bottom, this is simply the pestilent theology of lame Relativists like Hawking: a Big Crunch must be coming, and eternity is the succession of molar palingenic cycles punctuated by the "singularities" adjectified with "Big": bang and crunch, bang and crunch, alpha and omega...That is all that remains of Nietzsche's eternal recurrence, a parody of cloacal proportions...

...Thirdly, there is the question of the so-called Third Law (by those who want to exalt the Second Law and its corollary): for bang and crunch to be possible, the Second Law must be the dominant Law. But this
credo and dogma of the running down of the universe, based upon a strict equalitarian and utilitarian vision of nature, cannot explain thereby the organization of the visible and invisible universes.

Abstract
Nietzsche and eternal recurrence by Graham Smith The paper is a discussion
of the theme of eternal recurrence that Nietzsche develops throughout
his later period. The paper seeks to establish that the theme was central to
Nietzsche's thoughts, and that eternal recurrence can only be understood psychologically.

In Ecce Homo, Nietzsche asserts that the point of Thus Spake
Zarathustra was not Superman, but the doctrine of "eternal
recurrence." Eternal recurrence is the highest form of
"yea-saying" that can be attained. (See #1). The idea is that life,
even in its smallest details, will recur innumerable times. This dismaying and
oppressive notion is a (…guess!…) a further test of strength for the
Ubermensch. The world-approving man is the one who wishes to have life in all
its misery and terribleness play over again and again, and who will cry
"Encore" each time. This would be the ultimate liberation. "Oh,
how should I not be ardent for eternity and for the marriage-ring of rings—the
ring of the return?"

But this is more than a test of strength for Nietzsche. In the worlds of
Frederick Coppleston, the doctrine of eternal recurrence "fills a gap in
his philosophy. It confers on the flux of Becoming the semblance of Being, and
it does so without introducing any Being which transcends the universe."
According to Nietzsche, if you say that the universe never repeats itself but
constantly creates new forms, this displays a yearning after the idea of God.
The world must be enclosed upon itself if transcendence is to be banished.

Posted by Atticus on December 30, 1997 at 23:20:20: : : : : : Thanks for the response. I particularly enjoyed your metaphor of the broken record repeating for all infinity. A question which I have always wanted to propose to Nietzsche is, regardless of how heroic and noble one's life is, will it not get tedious repeating over and over again? Is not "variety the spice of life," to utilize an already overused cliche. After a while, won't even Odysseus say "enough is enough!"

: : : : Your objection makes two false assumptions about the eternal return: first, that you might have some memory of repeating your life "over and over again"; and, second, that novelty could be introduced into a life that eternally returns,
so that it could "get tedious" "[a]fter a while." The incompatibility of these assumptions with the doctrine of eternal return should be obvious.

: : : : The first implicitly posits the existence of a separate mind or soul that accumulates memories and survives the death of your body. Without the existence of a separate soul in which your memories can take up post-mortem residence, it would be imposssible for you to have any recollection of the previous rounds of your life. Yet the doctrine of eternal return makes no provision for any such immortal soul. To the contrary, it affirms the inescapability of mortality of all existence.

: : : : Your second assumption runs afoul of Nietzsche's insistence that what returns is this very same life without the slighest alteration. Were it possible for my life to become tedious after an infinity of repetitions or for me to cry "Enough is enough" at that point, then this would amount to the introduction a genuine novelty, something that is not merely the return of the exact same life that I had lived before. But this assumes something that is impossible according to Nietzsche's hypothesis.

Posted by Night Wanderer on March 11, 1998 at 14:31:25: The eternal recurrence is brought about through a constant state of warfare, 'in times of peace the warrior turns upon himself' in which you make yourself stronger through increasing life while decreasing the feelings of revenge...

Eternal ReturnBase: :
Vitanza/E.5352, Nietzsche and RhetoricDate: Thu, 20 Jun 1996 15:14:06 GMT From: jmn1152@utarlg.ute.edu...As metaphysics, the Eternal Return serves as a negation of the metaphysical concept of a perfect, or perfected world. If the cosmos was evolutionary, the eternity of the past has been long enough for that perfection to have already been accomplished. Therefore, eternity can not be evolutionary.

Deutschland - das Land der Dichter und Denker. Posted by Alant Jost on 6/13/1999, 12:33 a.m. , in reply to "The science and poetry of Eternal Recurrence" posted by Erin on 6/11/1999, 1:00 p.m.. The existential question of course is how much joy in comparison to how much suffering has and will eternally reappear. One might even speculate (irrespective of the differing interpretations for suffering and joy) that a proportion exists of say, "x" amount of inevitable joy to "y" amount of inevitable suffering. And if "x" is greater than "y" (one would hope so) by what proportion? At any rate, one would be left with an integral number AN EXACT PROPORTION. Finding or accurately speculating the value of such a number would indeed be a great philosophical achievement.

The perspectives of Nietzsche by Bill Curry My philosophy [Nietzsche's] brings the triumphant idea of which all other modes of thought will ultimately perish. It is the great cultivating idea: the races that cannot bear it stand condemned; those who find it the greatest benefit are chosen to rule...

I want to teach the idea that gives many the right to erase themselves - the great cultivating idea...

Everything becomes and recurs eternally - escape is impossible! - Supposing we could judge value, what follows? The idea of recurrence as a selective principle, in the service of strength (and barbarism!!)...

To endure the idea of the recurrence one needs: ...

CAUSATION AND TEMPORAL
RELATIONS by MICHAEL TOOLEY ...The Possibility of Eternal Recurrence
... A fifth objection to causal theories of time centres upon the possibility of
a universe involving eternal recurrence - that is, which consists of an unending
sequence of qualitatively indistinguishable temporal segments. Why does this
possibility pose a problem for causal theories of time? The reason is as
follows. Suppose that such a world contains events S, T, and S*
such that, first, S causes T; secondly S and S* are
corresponding events in distinct, but qualitatively indistinguishable temporal
segments, so that S and S* are indistinguishable with respect to
all of their properties, both intrinsic and relational; and, thirdly, S*
is later than T, and does not cause T...

Peter Greenaway and Nietzsche's Eternal Return -Stephanie Semler Walter Kaufmann, who is perhaps Nietzsche's most outspoken translator, gives an excellent guide for interpreting the intentions of the Eternal Recurrence in his "Translator's Introduction" to The Gay Science: "Nietzsche's associations with this doctrine are complex, but they cannot be understood unless one realizes that (1) his primary reaction is that no idea could be more gruesome. Nevertheless, (2) he takes it for the most scientific of all possible hypotheses' and feels that any refusal to accept it because it is such a terrifying notion would be a sign of weakness.

Spiritual Need and the Eternal Return By John Marmysz The overman is a higher type of man, corresponding to the highest metamorphosis of the spirit. He is like a child, at ease with the vital forces of the earth and nature as they express themselves in and around him. Being free from all resentment and pity for the world and its inhabitants, he is the only one capable of truly thinking "the most abysmal thought" of the Eternal Return while affirming and living inaccordance with its (un-)truth.

Nietzsche -- eternal recurrence by David H. Chasey ... The question in each and everything, 'do you want this once more and innumerable times more?' would lie upon your actions as the greatest weight. Or how well disposed would you have to become to ourself and *to life to crave nothing more fervently* than this ultimate eternal confirmation and seal?"

[elsewhere]

"My formula of the greatness of a human being is *amour fati*: that one wants nothing to be different -- not forward, not backward, not in all eternity." -- Nietzsche

How the 'Primal Will' evolves in Thus Spoke Zarathustra by Robert Cavalier This is the darkest thought of the "eternal recurrence of the same" and it is Zarathustra's gift to mankind. The problem becomes one of seeing how the central event (i.e., *the Ubermensch*) and the basic thought (i.e., eternal recurrence) are to be brought together. That is to say, how is Zarathustra's teaching related to Zarathustra's gift-giving? The answer to these conjunctions is to be found in the *activity of the child*. "The child", Zarathustra says, "is...a self-propelling wheel...a sacred yes." In the child, the spirit now wills its own will".

Nietzsche’s
Noble Lie by William M. Schneider
...I have not here claimed that merely understanding the doctrine of
eternal recurrence results in Ubermenschen. Rather, I insist that the
acceptance or embodiment is a necessary condition for the overman
inasmuch as each choice made by the individual must be informed by the wish for
the eternal return of the consequences of that choice.

* Living the Eternal Return as the Event: Nietzsche with Deleuze (Keith
Ansell Pearson)

Books:

ILLUMINATIONS
Klossowski, Pierre. _Nietzsche and the Vicious Circle_. Waite, Geoff. _Nietzsche's
Corpse/e_. Review by Douglas Kellner ...The inability, indeed
impossibility, of such a proof led Nietzsche, in Klossowski's interpretation, to
henceforth develop two opposing philosophical perspectives: an exoteric one
based on his more accessible ideas such as self-overcoming, the transvaluation
of values, and his affirmative Dionysian philosophy, and a more esoteric one
based on literal acceptance of the eternal recurrence, the vicious circle, an
idea that Nietzsche believed would divide humanity in half, bifurcated along the
lines of those who did and did not accept this momentous idea. The esoteric
teaching, in Klossowski's view, was for select individuals to become
"masters of the earth" and in fact produced Nietzschean cults who
dwelled on and within his most secret teachings.

... Klossowski's book can be profitably read alongside Geoff Waite's
_Nietzsche's Corps/e_, perhaps the most interesting book on Nietzsche of the
last decade. Waite argues that Nietzsche provides the dominant
ideological-philosophical-cultural matrix of the twentieth century whose only
contender is communism and urges all Marxists and progressives to beware of
Nietzsche's influence which Waite believes to be pernicious. Defending Althusser
against Nietzsche (and Heidegger who Waite sees as the most consequent and
dangerous Nietzschen), he pursues to the limit ...

Like Klossowski, Waite wants to distinguish between an esoteric and exoteric
Nietzsche, but unlike his French predecessor Waite wishes to polemicize against
the esoteric Nietzsche. He claims that Nietzsche devised multiple rhetorical and
literary strategies to promote his secret teachings, hid or sugar-coated the
more pernicious aspects of his thought such as his defense of slavery, eugenics,
euthanasia, or misogyny, and programmed his future reception into the writing of
his texts.

Review...The tradition of eternal recurrence runs
counter to conventional understanding of time in Western metaphysics in that it
has sought to purify eternity of its temporal character. In his exploration of
how thinkers have articulated this idea of eternal recurrence, Lukacher argues
that it is "‘the inauguaral thought’ in the effort by virtually every
epoch to take the measure of time’s unmeasurable otherness and mystery."

Note:Nietzsche's work on Eternal Return is
the only thing that interests me in his writings. Particularly, his contempt for
the weak, for compassion and pity are an anathema to me. His disdain of
Christianity was for the wrong reasons. Christianity, all to often, deserved
disdain because of its hypocrisy, support of brutality and because it didn't
practice the tenet of compassion for the less fortunate.

Here a critque of Nietzche's general thoughts by the people at Wold
Socialist Web Site.